Instant-win scratch-off lottery ticket games enjoy widespread popularity among various portions of the population for a number of reasons. Such games are cheap, exciting, easy to understand, simple to gift, and occasionally very profitable. The hidden nature of the game's numbers and possible payouts lend a certain mystery and suspense which provides a great psychological thrill to many persons.
Many such lottery tickets utilize latex ink coatings and other such surfaces as cheap methods of concealing the face of the ticket while allowing the average person to successfully remove the coating without particular stress. A common method of scratching these tickets is to utilize coins, fingernails, keys or other common small objects with suitable edges. However, many of these items which can commonly be found on a person at any given time have curved or small edges which make it difficult to evenly and completely scratch off a surface without the aggravation of extensive repeated scratching.
Various attempts have been made to provide devices which aid a person in the removal of concealing coverings from scratch-off lottery tickets. Examples of these attempts can be seen by reference to several U.S. patents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,842, issued in the name of Sanders et al., describes a ticket cleaning apparatus. The Sanders apparatus comprises an electronics housing and a receiving slit with an internal rotating mechanism which drives and scrapes a ticket when inserted in the housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,907,882, issued in the name of Tyree, describes a lottery ticket scratch off device. The Tyree device consists of a small housing with a roller and brush which activate upon the pressing of switch to roll a ticket through while removing the ink.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffer from one (1) or more of the aforementioned disadvantages. Many such devices are not easily portable. Also, many such devices do not allow for the scratching of tickets in a manner which provides the sought-after thrill of slowly revealing the surface of the ticket. In addition, many such devices are not provided with a soft surface for the soft cleaning of a surface and removal of less vigorous covering. Furthermore, many such devices require power sources in order to operate. Finally, many such devices are not easy to store in a manner of places for quick and easy access during travel. Accordingly, there exists a need for a scratch-off ticket ink removal device without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.